CHAPTER 490: 439 PRESERVE THIS QI.

Moreover, this matter greatly affected Du Heng. When he came home that evening, his elder brother asked about the result. After hearing it, his brother fell silent. He didn’t say anything, finished his cigarette, and went straight to sleep.

The next day, Du Heng was still in a bad mood, especially when treating Wu Shengnan. Wu Shengnan asked him, "How did your blind date go yesterday?" Du Heng sulked and didn’t answer, which made Wu Shengnan laugh heartily, making him even more depressed.

Starting from that day, Du Heng simply stopped visiting Wu Shengnan’s hospital room except to change her medication. As for her treatment, it could be entirely handed over to a doctor at the Provincial First Hospital. After all, the Chinese Medicine Department of Provincial First Hospital was a department of a Grade 3A hospital. Even on its own, its capabilities were leagues ahead of the Health Clinic. Therefore, providing standard acupuncture and massage treatments was not at all challenging for them.

Also, Du Heng wasn’t avoiding Wu Shengnan by no longer going to Provincial First Hospital—not entirely, anyway. Although that might have been part of the reason, the main factor was that the first round of evaluation organized by the Health Commission was approaching. Du Heng could no longer afford to act like the hands-off shopkeeper he had been in the preceding days. The evaluation was tied to the results of the previous year’s hard work and the work direction for the next three years; it could not be taken lightly.

With the arrival of the evaluation group, Du Heng realized his preparations had not been in vain. Compared to the superficial, almost cursory inspections by the Municipal Health Bureau before the New Year, the evaluations organized by the Health Commission were far more thorough. They spent three full days reviewing everything: from patient disease records to the storage of medical record files, from the cleanliness of the hospital rooms to the condition of basic equipment. From software to hardware, from the cleaning staff to Du Heng himself, nothing and no one was overlooked.

Fortunately, Du Heng and his team were well-prepared, and the support from the district bureau was also very effective. Essentially, no major errors or omissions were found. The areas needing improvement were mainly concentrated in the department’s composition and the need for additional equipment. While these were not major issues and could largely be resolved with funding, the evaluators raised a troublesome point as they were leaving: to upgrade to a second-level hospital, the number of Directors and Deputy Directors on staff was a mandatory requirement.

The problem was that the Health Clinic currently only had one Deputy Director—Du Heng. Where could they possibly find other Deputy Directors and Directors? Which chief doctor would willingly come to such a remote and undesirable place? At present, aside from training their own, the chances of recruiting one are truly slim.

Fortunately, the district bureau was there to provide backing, and with three years still on the clock, Du Heng wasn’t overly anxious. He was now completely engrossed in his work. Thanks to Cui Guanghaia’s presence, Du Heng was completely liberated. He even found the leisure to open a personal consultation room for himself in the Outpatient Department.

"Doctor, I bumped my knee this morning, and it’s a little sore now." Just after seeing off a patient with a cold, a woman entered and, plunking herself down, began to declare that her leg was uncomfortable.

Du Heng quickly finished organizing the previous patient’s disease record and then swiftly looked towards the woman who had just entered.

Since he was now seeing patients in his outpatient service on a flexible basis, he hadn’t been assigned an assistant, partly because he didn’t want to hinder the new doctors’ studying. Though this was somewhat inconvenient, Du Heng found a certain satisfaction in it, reminiscent of the hands-on, fulfilling work he had done before the previous year. He even felt he had been drifting a bit lately; it was time to ground himself and refocus.

"Let me see your knee."

The woman, with a touch of deliberate delicateness, began to pull up her pant leg. She was wearing tight, fleece-lined cotton pants, the kind that were also slim-fit, making it quite a struggle for her.

That’s women for you, Du Heng thought. If it had been a man, I would have told him to just take his pants off.

After enduring a rather long wait, Du Heng finally saw the spot the woman indicated. There was a thumb-sized bluish bruise beside her kneecap, likely from being bumped.

"Alright, you can pull your pant leg down now," Du Heng said. "It’s nothing serious, just a minor bump. I’ll prescribe some ointment for you; apply it for a couple of days, and you should be fine."

"Oh." The woman again went through the laborious effort of pulling her pant leg down. "My ankle hurts too. What’s wrong with it?"

Du Heng, who had just picked up his pen, paused. "Let me see."

He bent down again to examine the ankle the woman mentioned. Externally, there was no visible abnormality. He extended a finger and gently prodded the area. The woman let out an exaggerated "AH!" which startled Du Heng, causing him to quickly retract his finger.

"Doctor, what condition do I have?"

"This could be a tendon tear. Give me your hand; I’ll perform a pulse diagnosis for you."

The woman placed her hand on the pulse pillow, and Du Heng began the pulse diagnosis. He hadn’t performed a proper pulse diagnosis in a long time, and the familiar sensation of his three fingers lightly tapping, discerning the subtle changes in her pulse, brought a wave of nostalgia.

"Doctor, what’s a tendon?"

"It’s what we commonly call a ’sinew’," Du Heng replied, withdrawing his fingers. "Your overall constitution seems fine; the issue is likely with the tendon. Also, you’ve been eating a bit too much greasy food lately, and your gastrointestinal system isn’t in top shape. You should pay some attention to your diet."

Du Heng turned to his keyboard. "I’ll order a check-up for you. Please get it done to confirm."

The woman responded with an "Oh." "Doctor, what condition is it? Why do I need a check-up?"

Hearing this question again, Du Heng felt a bit exasperated. He stopped what he was doing and explained, "It’s a suspected tendon tear. We need an X-ray to confirm. If it really is a tear and it’s severe, you’ll need to go to a Big Hospital for surgery. If it’s minor, we can opt for conservative treatment. Of course, if it’s not a tear at all, that would be best."